1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a liquid ejecting apparatus that ejects a liquid onto a target, and to a liquid ejecting method.
2. Related Art
Liquid ejecting apparatuses thus far developed include an ink jet printer that ejects ink from a liquid ejecting head onto a target such as a paper sheet, to thereby perform a printing operation. To successively and stably supply the ink to the liquid ejecting head of the printer thus configured when printing a large amount of data, a system including an ink tank having a relatively large capacity has been proposed, to supply the ink to an ink cartridge through an ink supply tube (for example, see Taiwanese Patent No. 538909).
In the printers of this type, the liquid ejecting head is mounted on a carriage set to reciprocate in a main scanning direction with respect to the paper sheet, inside the casing of the main body. The ink supply tube is routed from the ink tank located outside the casing into the stroke region of the carriage through an opening of the upper face of the casing, and connected to the ink cartridge mounted on the carriage.
Here, an upper structure (serving also as a cover) that can be displaced so as to open and close the opening is provided on the main casing, and hence the ink supply tube is caught between the casing and the upper structure set to close the opening. Accordingly, a spacer is provided between the upper structure and a peripheral region of the opening, for the ink supply tube to be passed therethrough. The spacer has a generally annular shape to allow the ink supply tube to be inserted therethrough and move in the longitudinal direction. The ink supply tube inserted through inside of the spacer has its outer surface in contact with the inner wall of the spacer, thus to be restricted from moving in a direction intersecting the longitudinal direction.
In addition, some of such printers are configured to detect whether the upper structure is in the closed position, and to inhibit the printing operation through a control unit in the case where the upper structure is open and hence the closed position is not detected.
In the case where the ink supply tube is caught between the apparatus main body and the upper structure in the foregoing printer, the upper structure cannot be completely closed irrespective of whether the spacer is provided, and therefore the printer having the detection function is unable to activate the printing operation. In this case, an orifice may be formed in the casing to pass the ink supply tube through the orifice. However, an exclusive tool for forming the orifice has to be prepared, and besides the process becomes complicated. Further, forcibly closing the upper structure may cause a damage on the ink supply tube and disturb the smooth flow of the ink.